Point-and-click adventure games and I have a little bit of a problem with each other.

No matter how hard I try, I can never really escape the weird cycle of clicking on everything possible in an effort to get something to work instead of methodically assessing my situation and thinking about what works. Perhaps it's part personal fault and part game design, but it really frustrates me when the most efficient way of progressing is just using every item in every possible way - something will eventually click, right?